start up for a difference

can i program my puter to ...when it first starts up all that are loaded are the basics?, even if i delete items from my start up list i don't know what i have to keep and what can be eliminated. is there some way to program it so i can add some of the few things i generally do but never involves the other items. i installed an extra 128 MB of ram so my total is 256 but at start up i only register about 72 or 78 percenti have a pentium III compaq using windows ME